Project Summary While very substantial progress has been made over the last 10 or so years with regards to next generation sequencing (NGS) and third generation sequencing (TGS) of DNA, the development of novel and enabling tool sets for RNA sequencing has lagged significantly. During this project, we aim to make significant progress with regards to that gap by developing and validating an entirely new solid-state sequencing platform, developed specifically and ideally for direct RNA sequencing, including its structural complexities and nucleotide modifications, all with high accuracy. While there are over 100 known RNA nucleotide modifications, due to the lack of analytical characterization methods available, the exact roles of these modifications remain to be determined. The technology that will be developed during the project will be capable of elucidating the roles of these modifications, and revolutionizing our understanding and use of the transcriptome/epitranscriptome.